Excel on MacBookPro : double click on cellwalls sends you to end of spreadsheet

[lb580]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I'm on a brand spanking new MacBook Pro. New install of Office for Mac. I've never used the Mac version before but an quite familiar with Office on windows. I'm also familiar with Leopard on a Mac Mini. But I am new to glide pad as entry mechanism.

I've been editing some spreadsheets. Horrified to learn that there is no keyboard shortcut for editing (F2 is embedded in my brain) and I have to double click on the glidepad to edit a cell. So I am entering data onto a cell and hitting enter to save it and move to next cell. Pretty soon the active cell is quite some distance from the cursor of the glidepad. So if I need to edit a cell I have to go visually search for the cursor, move my hands to the glidepad and move it to the cell I want, then move hands again to the button to double click to edit it.

In all that it is quite easy to slip the position of the cursor a little off the cell and something very strange was happening that I just figured out. If the glidepad cursor is on the cell wall (top/bottom) most times the spreadsheet will jump to the bottom (last entry) of the spreadsheet. I don't need to tell you how disorientating that is and how difficult it is to scroll back up and find my position again.

Any body else know what the hell is going on here, what possible benefit their could be for it, and if you have a keyboard shortcut for editing a cell then please tell me so I don't have to go through this again!

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I'm on a brand spanking new MacBook Pro. New install of Office for Mac. I've
never used the Mac version before but an quite familiar with Office on
windows. I'm also familiar with Leopard on a Mac Mini. But I am new to glide
pad as entry mechanism.

I've been editing some spreadsheets. Horrified to learn that there is no
keyboard shortcut for editing (F2 is embedded in my brain) and I have to
double click on the glidepad to edit a cell. So I am entering data onto a cell
and hitting enter to save it and move to next cell. Pretty soon the active
cell is quite some distance from the cursor of the glidepad. So if I need to
edit a cell I have to go visually search for the cursor, move my hands to the
glidepad and move it to the cell I want, then move hands again to the button
to double click to edit it.

In all that it is quite easy to slip the position of the cursor a little off
the cell and something very strange was happening that I just figured out. If
the glidepad cursor is on the cell wall (top/bottom) most times the
spreadsheet will jump to the bottom (last entry) of the spreadsheet. I don't
need to tell you how disorientating that is and how difficult it is to scroll
back up and find my position again.

Any body else know what the hell is going on here, what possible benefit their
could be for it, and if you have a keyboard shortcut for editing a cell then
please tell me so I don't have to go through this again!

First of all, you can find out a lot about this yourself. Look in Excel help
for keyboard shortcuts. You'll find that control-u will allow you to edit
the cell.

As far as the other actions you are seeing, they are all by design and for
efficient use of the mouse. You can also find out about many of these in
Help. (Most of them are the same in Windows excel also.) You may find it
hard to believe, but you will be much more productive if you use the mouse
for navigation, and the keyboard for entering data. Keyboard shortcuts
require certain recall operations in your brain that are not performed
simultaneously with analysis. Spatial relationships and mouse navigation
are.

 

[CyberTaz]

Keystroke to edit in cell: Control+U as it has always been until the Windows
Excel team was created & were allowed access to the program F2 was
already assigned to standard operations in the Mac OS long before Excel was
available for Windows... and well before there even was a Windows.That and
most other keystrokes are documented in Help: Keyboard Shortcuts Used in
Excel.

The navigation feature has always been there as well [PC Excel also] but
most users have never known it. It serves as an efficient way to return to
the top of the sheet or a column of content. It takes you to the last filled
or last empty cell above the one you dbl-click in the column dependent on
whether that cell has content or is empty.

However, with higher resolution screens resulting in smaller cell display
it's quite easy to accidentally double-click the top edge of the cell rather
than in its center. Note the difference in the pointer appearance: If it's
*on* the cell it will look like a bold white cross, if it's on the *top
edge* of the cell it will look like a Hand [Mac] or Select Objects arrow
[PC].

BTW, dbl-clicking the left edge of the cell works in a similar fashion to
move left.

 

[lb580]

Thanks both of you.

I had looked at the keyboard shortcuts in help but missed the control-U. Now I know that I am much happier.

Bob, I've worked in usability for a while and often heard that the focus on the mouse on Macs is very efficient but I have never found any published tests that demonstrate it. Can you help out?

One thing I have learned is that folks are all different, some like the deliberate act of moving to a mouse to move around a screen, others like to keep their hands on the keyboard. These days all operating systems are powerful enough to make it easy which ever way the user wants to interact with them.

CyberTax - Good to see some die hard computer geeks around. Unfortunately the vast majority of the world knows spreadsheets through Excel on Windows and only within the last 10-15 years so the de-facto standard will have become F2.

I've tried out moving the cursor in and out of the cell and cell borders. The little hand only appears if the cell is already active - i.e. you have selected it already with the keyboard. If you move the cursor to another cell away from the active cell then the little hand does not appear as you go over cell borders. So it is very easy to make an error and click on the cell border, especially with high resolution screen and less than perfect fingers.